Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in later life. Pathologically, AD is characterized by the deposition of amyloid in extracellular plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. The amyloid plaques are mainly composed of amyloid peptides (Aβ peptides) which originate from the β-Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) by a series of proteolytic cleavage steps. Several forms of APP have been identified of which the most abundant are proteins of 695, 751 and 770 amino acids length. They all arise from a single gene through differential splicing. The Aβ peptides are derived from the same domain of the APP.
Aβ peptides are produced from APP through the sequential action of two proteolytic enzymes termed β- and γ-secretase. β-Secretase cleaves first in the extracellular domain of APP just outside of the trans-membrane domain (TM) to produce a C-terminal fragment of APP containing the TM- and cytoplasmatic domain (CTFβ). CTFβ is the substrate for γ-secretase which cleaves at several adjacent positions within the TM to produce the Aβ peptides and the cytoplasmic fragment. Various proteolytic cleavages mediated by γ-secretase result in Aβ peptides of different chain length, e.g. Aβ38, Aβ40 and Aβ42. The latter one is regarded to be the more pathogenic amyloid peptide because of its strong tendency to form neurotoxic aggregates.
The β-secretase is a typical aspartyl protease. The γ-secretase is a proteolytic activity consisting of several proteins, its exact composition is incompletely understood. However, the presenilins are essential components of this activity and may represent a new group of atypical aspartyl proteases which cleave within the TM of their substrates and which are themselves polytopic membrane proteins. Other essential components of γ-secretase may be nicastrin and the products of the aph1 and pen-2 genes. Proven substrates for γ-secretase are the APP and the proteins of the Notch receptor family, however, γ-secretase has loose substrate specificity and may cleave further membrane proteins unrelated to APP and Notch.
The γ-secretase activity is absolutely required for the production of Aβ peptides. This has been shown both by genetic means, i.e., ablation of the presenilin genes and by low-molecular-weight inhibitory compounds. Since according to the amyloid hypothesis for AD the production and deposition of Aβ is the ultimate cause for the disease, it is thought that selective and potent inhibitors of γ-secretase will be useful for the prevention and treatment of AD.
An alternative mode of treatment is the modulation of the γ-secretase activity which results in a selective reduction of the Aβ42 production. This will result in to an increase of shorter Aβ isoforms, such as Aβ38, Aβ37 or others, which have reduced capability for aggregation and plaque formation, and hence less neurotoxic. Compounds which show this effect on modulating γ-secretase activity include certain non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and related analogues (Weggen et al. Nature, 414 (2001) 212-16).
Numerous documents describe the current knowledge on γ-secretase modulation, for example the following publications:    Morihara et al, J. Neurochem., 83 (2002) 1009-12    Jantzen et al, J. Neuroscience, 22 (2002) 226-54    Takahashi et al, J. Biol. Chem., 278 (2003) 18644-70    Beher et al, J. Biol. Chem. 279 (2004) 43419-26    Lleo et al, Nature Med. 10 (2004) 1065-6    Kukar et al, Nature Med. 11 (2005) 545-50    Perretto et al, J. Med. Chem. 48 (2005) 5705-20    Clarke et al, J. Biol. Chem. 281 (2006) 31279-89    Stock et al, Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 16 (2006) 2219-2223    Narlawar et al, J. Med. Chem. 49 (2006) 7588-91